


Bittersweet Romance

by Bloodysyren



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Kissing, M/M, Sweet, romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:22:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22321768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bloodysyren/pseuds/Bloodysyren
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Kudos: 3





	Bittersweet Romance

Steve straightened his tie and rang Tony’s door. It was an excruciating 3 minute walk from his car, a revamped 1950 Rolls that Tony had given Steve for his last birthday. At first he was so scared to drive it. But once he got used to it, he really enjoyed all of the peculiar stares he got from everyone on the street. That fabulous glint that everyone go in their eyes watching it drive past a piece of updated history. Just like him.

He fidgeted with the hem of his coat and cleared his throat, palms sweating as Tony pressed the buzzer, telling him to come on up. The elevator opened and Steve stepped into the steel cage, the box that led up to Heaven, overlooking the twinkling lights of all of Manhattan. He swallowed hard. Tony had always been a really good friend, and someone that, even after all of their petty squabbling, had been something a little more. But Steve wondered why Tony wasn’t spending this night with Pepper. They were a couple after all, or so Steve thought.

The doors opened onto Tony’s lavish enormous living room, the playboy standing there in a crisp white shirt, open at the throat, a pair of black slacks hugging his toned body. He extended a full glass of champagne. Steve accepted it gratefully, glancing towards the full glass windows overlooking the city lights.

“I know it seems as pointless as drinking water but hey, it’s a special night, right?” Tony chortled, taking a sip of his own. He casually walked toward the balcony, leading the way for Steve to follow. He passed a huge bouquet of red roses, so stereotypical, but Steve couldn’t fault Tony for being a hopeless romantic. For all of his bravado and egotistical snobbishness, Tony was one of the most soft-hearted guys Steve knew. One of the only guys Steve really knew. Clint and Bruce were acquaintances, and Fury? He was always off doing things with Shield. In Cambodia one day and England the next. Not exactly someone you could go out to lunch with on a whim.

Tony plucked a long-stemmed rose away from it’s identical companions and strode out the huge doors towards the city, as if he could jump off and the ethereal glow would support him, weightless, like a feather over the endless sparkling lake of artificial lights. Steve smiled absentmindedly to himself, that 1000 watt smile beaming at the floor, turned inwards, subdued and shy. Tony glanced back at his guest, slowly making his way out onto the balcony to join him, that fearless melting gaze trained on Steve’s perfect face.

“You gonna join me in the next millennia?” Tony chided lightly, taking another sip of his champagne as Steve shuffled to the railing beside his host. They stared out at the city together, so high above everything, separate from the crazy bustle of cheap chocolate and cheap words. Up here in the stratosphere, Steve thought, it was a whole other world. They stood in silence for a moment before Tony’s voice floated out onto the air.

“Do you ever think about what it would be like….” He started. Steve turned his face away from the thousand small spotlights watching them to look at Tony with those sea-glass eyes.

“Hmm?”

“What it would be like to just be up there, out above everything…..”

“Well, you do it all the time with your suit, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but I meant you, old man…..” Tony flashed a disarming smile in Steve’s direction and walked away towards the living room, still clutching his half-empty glass of champagne and the red rose. Tony set his glass down and said a few things to JARVIS that Steve couldn’t catch. He walked back towards Steve on the balcony, through the circular portal that effortlessly attached all of the pieces of his suit. As if they were a part of him, Steve thought. They were a part of him. He had made it, for himself, for the world. But at this moment, it was made for Steve. For them to be together. Extraordinary.

That red and gold suit with Tony’s face peeking from beneath the helmet handed Steve the rose, sweeping the larger man into his arms effortlessly, Steve wrapped his arm around the back of Tony’s neck, clutching the rose like a secondary lifeline should he fall.

“Ready princess?” Tony said jokingly, in that robotic voice. Steve just smiled as he felt the powerful thrusters push them from the balcony, sending them hurtling out over the city lights. Steve felt secure in the mechanical arms, knowing that beneath them were the real arms of his friend, his comrade. They had gone through so much together, all of them. They had all grown closer because of the difficult trials at Loki’s hands. They had all grown stronger, as people, as friends. But to Steve, Tony was the closest friend he had.

They were connected through the ages, through Tony’s father. A man so obsessed with his work he had no time for his own son. Even though everything Howard did was ultimately for Tony. It hurt Steve’s heart to think of Tony living alone for so long with no one to be there for him, the way a father should. The way his father had been. They were so alike it pained him. He knew that something so horrible should never bring two people together like this, but he couldn’t deny it.

The wind whipped through Steve’s hair as they made their way to the bridge, making the tears falling slide backwards towards his ears, sending them crashing onto Tony’s helmet. Connecting them. They sailed like birds to the top spire, Tony slowly easing down the thrusters to land gently on top of the bridge’s maintenance loft, surrounded by rugged metal railings and steel grates. He set Steve down gently, clutching the rose to his chest tightly, as if it was the last thing in this world he wanted to protect, the physical embodiment of Tony Stark’s heart. Tony’s helmet clanged up as they looked at the city lights, Stark tower a beacon in the black sky. But Steve wasn’t looking at the city.

He fingered the rose gently, watching the petals flap weakly in the wind. He thought about Tony, a man with so much pain in his life, living in the shadow of his father and his friends, a man who improved himself, surrounded himself with technology, so at least he wouldn’t be completely alone. Steve glanced to the side, a bittersweet smile on his lips as he saw the comforting glow of the arc reactor buried in Tony’s chest, the one thing saving him from the brink of death. Steve turned to Tony, unable to say a thing as Tony saw the tears in his eyes.

He took the smaller man into the circle of his arms and pressed that cold metal body to his own, sure that Tony could feel the stifling heat from his body, the emotions raging inside him. All of the things that Steve wished he could go back and fix in Tony’s life. All of the heartache, all of the loneliness, all of the cracked and broken memories. He wished there was a way he could have stayed back in time and repaired them all. But it was too late for regrets. Tony was here now, and all they had was this moment in time. This one small miniscule second, a brief flash of happiness, no way of knowing how long it would last.

Steve clung to Tony, pressing his lips to those soft warm, real ones, pouring his whole heart and soul into that kiss, knowing that Tony could taste all of the silent regret, all of the wasted moments that were lost to hungry time. Tony turned in the circle of Steve’s arms and looked out towards the city.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Tony said, breaking the silence.

“Yes you are…..”


End file.
